iPad Controls A High-tech Game Park

iPad controls a 115,000-square foot family entertainment center.

It’s one thing to automate the audio, video and lighting devices inside a house; it’s another to put a system in control of 30-or-so flat-panel TVs, 200 loudspeaker and hundreds of lights, not to mention more than 200 arcade games, plus bumper cars and other rides.

The inFusion system from Vantage allows the owner and the staff of iPlay America, in Freehold, N.J., to bring the entire facility to life by pressing a few buttons on an iPad or iPhone. Installed and programmed by Advanced Installations of Cranbury, N.J., the system simplifies tasks that may have otherwise taken hours to perform. Every part of the facility turns on automatically starting at 9:30 a.m. with the music and lights. The TVs follow at 9:45, and at 10:15, just in time for opening, the volume of both the audio and video ramps up. All of the lights (which includes incandescent, LED and fluorescent fixtures), meanwhile, have brightened to their preset intensity levels. “The system performs the same routine every day,” says Advanced Installations’ Brian Schmidt. “The owner wanted visitors to have the same experience no matter what day or time of day they came to iPlay America.”

Although most of the settings happen automatically, the owner and staff can always dim certain lights, adjust the volume levels and shut down or turn on certain areas of the facility from their iPads and iPhones. And when it’s closing time, the Vantage inFusion sweeps through the facility turning off all lights, music and video.